


The High Road is Overrated

by orphan_account



Category: Doctor Strange (2016), Iron Man (Movies), The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Alternate Universe- Villains, BAMF Tony Stark, Canon Related, M/M, Pre-Canon, Stephen Strange is Asian, Tony Stark Has Issues, Villain Stephen Strange, Villain Tony Stark, do not comment on this goddamn story about him being Asian, i saw a prompt and was like hmm yes i want to see these two as villains, idk bois this is just a self indulgent villain story ok, in Stephen's case, so now they gunna be villain boyfriends
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-07-21
Updated: 2018-08-31
Packaged: 2019-06-13 20:26:37
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 3
Words: 8,091
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15372666
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/orphan_account
Summary: Tony considers the headline in front of him and it honesty boggles his mind that people are actuallydefendinghim. There should be no world in which a war mongering billionaire should have a bunch of information leaked regarding his shitty behavior only for news outlets to say ‘aww, right after he got kidnapped?’News outlets shouldn’t care about his feelings, they should care about his actions.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Alternate story title: The High Road is For Those Who Look Down on People. But that was too long.
> 
> So this starts up at the beginning of Tony's villainy though I wouldn't class him as a 'true' villain. More like his chaotic good self but more chaotic and still good but sometimes morally sketchy. Stephen's arc, though, happens within the story itself. His backstory only has elements of his canon backstory in it and will take him in a totally different direction. I think (maybe) this will take a darker turn but like not DC dark if that's what you're worried about lmao. *Softly but with meaning _Martha_ * Idk how long this boi will be but we'll see.
> 
> Warnings for basically all the canon elements of Tony's backstory- torture, terrorism, non-con surgery, that type of thing. I suppose you could also class some of the stuff in here as (self) victim blaming as well- just stuff to be aware of but all canon typical.

Tony considers the headline in front of him and it honesty boggles his mind that people are actually _defending_ him. There should be no world in which a war mongering billionaire should have a bunch of information leaked regarding his shitty behavior only for news outlets to say ‘aww, right after he got kidnapped?’ What they _should_ report on is the casualties he’s caused, the way his weapons have affected several different countries, none for the better, and the way he’s not only been complicit in all of it, but he actively _encouraged_ it. News outlets shouldn’t care about his feelings, they should care about his actions.

The good news is that reporter, the blonde he slept with shortly before Afghanistan, shredded his ass. Granted she ultimately came to the conclusion that his shutting down the weapons section of his company might show some kind of redemption for him despite his horrific track record but still. She seems to be the only one treating him the way he should be treated and it’s pissing him off.

The bad news is that upon looking into the company records he found out who, exactly, was responsible for the weapons he found in several areas they shouldn’t have been- like Yinsen’s village. He’ll find a way to deal with Obadiah soon, but for now he thinks this media mess should be cleaned up.

Pepper walks in with a newspaper in her hand looking irritated and Tony frowns, “what’s up with you?” he asks as she drops the paper on the table in front of him. She sets down her coffee and flops into her seat. “I can’t _believe_ that some… some… _asshole_ somehow leaked all that information on you and the company!” she says, shaking her head.

He frowns, “Pep, it’s all true, I don’t see why you’re mad.” He doesn’t mention that the only person even _capable_ of breaking into his systems is sitting in front of her but that’s another problem. The only other person besides him that has even a glimmer of hope is Rhodey- he’s the only one smart enough and the only one who knows him well enough to get through the code and answer the questions. And even then he’s certain Rhodey wouldn’t be able to manage, not for months anyways.

Pepper frowns at him. “Tony, you’re barely back from spending three months in a cave and someone feels the need to exploit you?” She shakes her head, “that’s horrible,” she says with a surprising amount of venom in her voice.

“I spent three months in a cave living the life I’ve forced _thousands_ of others to live before me and I got to come back to a cushy life, loads of money, and an assistant that is _way_ too loyal. I appreciate it Pep but that was poetic justice plain and simple.” He _earned_ that, he earned more than that, and now he’s damn well going to hold himself responsible for his actions. No one should wield the kind of power he had over people, power that he largely exploited for profit. And in the end he doesn’t even really have to face actual consequences, not really. He gets everything that made his life great back again and people sympathize with _him_ over everyone’s lives he’s ruined. That’s fucking nuts to him.

“Tony,” Pepper says softly, “you’re being too hard on yourself. I know… I know that maybe some things went wrong but you’re a good man.” She believes it too, and he wants to believe her because he loves Pepper, has for a long time, but her words are the same as Rhodey’s and their love doesn’t make them true. They only think that because they know him personally.

He shakes his head, “Pepper good men don’t make money off war. Good men don’t _want_ war to continue to make money. And good men don’t fund terrorists.”

“That wasn’t you Tony, I know it wasn’t,” Pepper says fast, determination high on her features like she’s prepared to fight him until he’s convinced she’s right.

“No,” he agrees and Pepper looks relieved for a hot minute. “But that doesn’t matter. If I’m so damn unaware of how the fucking company is running that I don’t notice terrorist groups being funded than the problem is still mine. My company, my responsibility.” His business partner, even more his responsibility but Pepper doesn’t know that. She doesn’t know Obadiah paid to have him killed either, but Obadiah’s turn will come soon. Right after he corrects all this media garbage.

“Tony-” she starts but he cuts her off.

“Just _stop_ Pepper, and ask yourself why the hell you’re defending a man who let someone in his company fund _terrorism_ while near single handedly fucking over several different countries with his weapons. There’s no defense for it Pepper- I was dangerously arrogant and everyone _but_ me paid the price. Now people want to pity me like living through the pleasant version of what I’ve put others through isn’t what I deserved? Give me a break,” he snaps, shaking his head. He’s killed thousands and displaced thousands more and people think _he’s_ the one who should get pity? Unbelievable.

“I’m defending you because I know you’re not a bad person!” Pepper tells him, irritated with his dismissal of her words. “You thought you were doing the right thing, I’m not entirely convinced you weren’t,” she adds.

Neither is Rhodey but the reason for both their opinions is along the same lines. “If protecting Americans means killing everyone else than I think we have a _really_ fucked up country and an even more fucked up version of patriotism. War isn’t something anyone should make a profit off of full stop. This should not be a revolutionary statement.” It should be common fucking sense that profit based in mass murder is so wildly demented that any society that believes in it on a wide scale has failed. It should be a sign that the people in it have failed. And Tony refuses to fall back into a line of thought that allowed him to assume that his weapons were only killing ‘bad’ people.

Ultimately that’s subjective too- it’s not like everyone thinks Americans are the good guys and a lot of the time they’re right, so who was Tony really protecting anyways? He’s tired of coddling his own conscience, pretending to be right so he doesn’t have to consider what happens if he isn’t. He isn’t right, and now the whole world has all the dirty details. He refuses to lack that transparency again.

*

Rhodey hugs Tony unexpectedly mostly because he didn’t know Rhodey was back in town. “Um,” he says intelligently.

“Holy shit Tones, I am so sorry,” he says softly.

Tony frowns, “about _what_?” he asks. Because he’s looked into Rhodey’s military records and he’s made his fair share of mistakes but he also seems to have a habit of going off script to do what he wants. In an ironic twist of events that’s what seems to get him promoted- he’s better at decision making than his superiors, saves more lives, and generally gets the job done faster so he ends up replacing them. He can’t say he agrees with _all_ of Rhodey’s calls, he finds quite a few of them rather abhorrent, but on the whole Rhodey is a decent guy. Its nice to know considering he hadn’t much wanted to find out how complicit his friend was in a lot of bad military calls.

“Obadiah, Tony,” Rhodey says like he’s confused. “Are you in shock or something because I feel like you should be freaking out. Did you even know before you saw the papers?” he asks.

He lets out a harsh laugh, “yeah Rhodey, how the hell do you think the papers found out?”

Rhodey winces. “I thought… thought that hacker was involved, the one who leaked all your company’s happenings over the last… since World War Two.” Yeah, not that Howard’s actions really matter much now but he felt it was necessary to start completely fresh.

“It was, sort of. I got an anonymous tip.” That’s what he told the cops when he handed over all the information anyways.

But, because Rhodey isn’t as stupid as the cops, he frowns. “Tony, my bosses are losing their shit right now. Your systems are uncrackable and obviously someone managed. _Please_ tell me you’ve figured out who this guy is.”

He almost laughs because that’s fucking hilarious but he keeps it to himself. He shrugs, “nope, and frankly I don’t really care either.”

Rhodey’s eyes all but pop out of his head, “Tony, whoever this is is personally targeting you. This could be a huge problem,” he says.

“Than maybe I shouldn’t have had secrets to keep, Rhodey. Nothing that was released was falsified.” Why do things keep circling back around to this? Why are people showing him so much support for participating in such awful things?

“Tony,” Rhodey murmurs, reaching out and settling a hand on his shoulder. “I know you feel some kind of guilt but Obadiah is the one who sold weapons to terrorists, not you. And he’s the one who funded them, _not_ you. _And_ he tried to have you killed to prevent you from finding out. I think that tells me that he knew you’re a better man than he is and that you never would have supported something like that. You don’t deserve the backlash you’re getting,” he says softly.

Backlash? From _whom_? A few stray activist groups who get their asses flamed every time they point out that the hacker was right about him? They have no power, no real clout even if some of them are kind of loud about it. But as far as mainstream media goes he’s getting way more support than he deserves.

“I told Pepper this and I’ll tell you too- if I’m not paying enough attention to my company to know that my business partner is funding terrorist movements and supplying them with weapons that is still my problem, Rhodey. Stop trying to avoid holding me responsible for actions that are, in some ways, still my fault.” Its shocking to him the lengths people will go to try to avoid holding him responsible for the actions of his company. Like his ignorance somehow exonerates him from the crimes committed under his nose. If anything he thinks that makes his complacency _worse_.

Rhodey steps forward, reaching out and grasping his arm. “Tony. I’ve spent almost two decades by your side watching your relationships and what I’ve seen is that toxic people have a habit of attaching themselves to you. Obadiah spent _years_ emotionally manipulating you. He’d take every opportunity to convince you he was right and you were wrong. I know Howard hurt you too. I don’t know how much responsibility you can hand to yourself when a lot of this is the direct result of you being abused for literally your entire life,” he says softly.

Tony shakes his head, “all it took was a simple look at finances and I would have known the numbers didn’t add up. I’m a fucking math genius Rhodey; it shouldn’t have even taken _that_ for me to realize something wasn’t right. No one abused me into not seeing what was right in front of me fucking face.” He sees math that no one else does all the time, he’s made entirely new ways of doing math, and yet simple math escapes him? And Rhodey’s excuse is that Howard was a dick? No fucking good enough.

*

Stephen hadn’t intended to have an interesting day at work but when he heard Tony Stark was in the building he made it his mission to find the man. They’ve all seen the reactor in his chest and Steven wants to see it up close. Of course Stark is not all that pleased with it and neither is his coworker, who knows by now to stay out of his way. “Would you stop staring at my chest like it’s a piece of meat?” Tony snaps at him.

“Oh like you wouldn’t react the same way to a piece of technology you’ve never seen before. Is that contraption attached to your ribs?” he asks, trying to work out the logistics of how it sits in his chest. That’s a heavy plate, something needs to be supporting it and the breastbone is either gone entirely or quite a lot of it has been removed.

“None of your business,” Tony tells him, shifting so his arms are crossed over his chest.

“That’s got to reduce lung capacity, how much more difficult is it for you to breathe?” Stephen asks, unperturbed.

“It reduces lung capacity to seventy percent now stop _staring_ at me,” Tony mumbles.

“You do know I’m a doctor right, its my job to stare,” he points out. And it’s not such a hardship either. Aside from medical curiosity Tony must spend a lot of time working out, and Stephen wonders how me manages _that_ with a giant hole in his chest, and how do the muscles in that area work now with such a large impediment in the way? He itches to reach out and actually examine the area but he suspects that Tony would slap him for doing so.

“That’s nice, I don’t care whatever your name is,” Tony tells him.

“Strange,” Stephen tells him and Tony squints.

“What’s strange?”

“My name,” he says, frowning at Tony. So much for being a genius.

“Do I look like I give two shits and a snare drum about how weird your name is?” he asks.

Stephen gets the miscommunication then and rolls his eyes. “My name is Dr. Stephen Strange, moron,” he says.

Tony looks at him like _he’s_ the one who messed up such a simple interaction and shakes his head. “That’s made up,” he says and Stephen blinks rapidly, wondering where the hell _that_ came from.

“Certainly, that seems quite like a thing a world renowned doctor would do just to confuse some irritating billionaire for the hell of it,” he says sarcastically.

“That’s seriously your real name?” Tony deadpans before letting out a long sigh. “Wow.”

Well that’s quite rude, Stephen can’t help the name he was born with though he does wish his mother chose someone with a surname that wasn’t something children could so easily make fun of. Granted he still made it out with less damage than a lot of his other Asian peers given that his name, while odd, doesn’t immediately sound ethnic. He still resents that his own damn name is what children, and later adults before they learned to fear him, used to poke fun at him.

“Not like ‘Anthony Edward Stark’ is the greatest name on record,” Stephen mumbles. “What exactly powers that thing?” he asks, nodding to the reactor.

Tony gives him a dirty look. “Palladium,” he says and Stephen snorts.

“Might want to find a replacement for that soon unless you’re fond of the idea of being poisoned. Also those materials are absurdly heavy, why would you choose _metal_?” he asks, nodding at the clearly heavy chest piece. That has to cause pain, a lot of it, and he’s certain that it wouldn’t be able to heal right in the conditions Tony had been in. Hell, he’s not certain something like that could heal right _ever_.

Tony rolls his eyes, “I was in a cave with a box of scraps, I didn’t exactly have my pick of materials,” he points out.

“Well you’ve been home for almost eight months, I’m sure you could have found something in that time frame,” he says. “You’re quite known for your ingenuity and frankly I’m quite surprised you went with something so simple.”

Tony’s eyebrows shoot up and he blinks rapidly in obvious surprise, “ _excuse_ me? _Simple_? What the hell would you know about this chest plate anyways?” he asks.

Stephen smiles, pleased that his parents’ pressure to be an engineer has finally paid off. “Probably more than most considering I have a degree in the subject. Never was fond though. I do, however, happen to know that there are better materials to use for an implant like that that wouldn’t affect function and would lighten the load, so to speak. And I really can’t stress this enough- find something else to power that thing before it begins to poison you.” He’s rather shocked it hasn’t done that already or maybe it has and Tony isn’t displaying symptoms yet, that’s also entirely possible.

He gets little more than an irritated glare from Tony. “Anything else, doctor?” he asks, raising an eyebrow.

Stephen pulls a card from his pocket and hands to Tony, “in case you need the opinion of a competent doctor. Or if you just want to call,” he says, offering a winning smile before he takes off to go deal with some other patient that’s bound to annoy him.

*

Stephen doesn’t know a whole lot about that new hacker, the one that initially took a rather sharp interest in Tony Stark post return from Afghanistan, but he does know that whomever it is really doesn’t like the man. He found the media coverage of Tony’s business info dump interesting to say the least but the hacker found it offensive, going as far as to rewrite and rename every major news article that covered the subject. What had been particularly interesting is that the new articles replaced the old on every single news website and none of them seemed to be able to replace the hacker’s articles with the originals.

They also seemed unable to put the articles they’d written on _that_ subject onto any major digital platform with the exception of one Christine Everhart’s article that had taken a rather scathing view of the whole thing.

Stephen found the whole thing strange- no pun intended- but had initially thought the hacker would fade into obscurity. Then all the business with Obadiah Stane came out. The media had been far more scathing to him, the man committed _treason_ after all, but the fact that this appeared to be the same hacker that went after Tony had been suspect. That’s about when he notices the shift a little in how this hacker is perceived. At first they’d been an unwelcome intrusion into a beloved celebrity’s life, but now this person is exposing people for treason? They may be useful.

Personally he’s simply curious when the hacker will fade or be found out. How many times can a person risk jumping into someone’s business and getting out unnoticed before they’re flushed out? Starting with Tony Stark, who is probably the only person on this planet with a system that’s unhackable had been a very bold move though and it’s given the hacker an instant air of credibility. If even Tony Stark can’t keep them out no one can. People seem to be split on whether this person is malevolent or benevolent but Stephen doesn’t think there’s enough evidence to say either way.

“What is it that’s got your attention?” Christine asks him. He lifts the paper with the latest news on it and she sighs. “You and that hacker. What is it that’s got you so interested anyways?”

Stephen shrugs as he reads the latest person to suffer the hacker’s takedown. “Purely intellectual curiosity,” he tells her, turning the page to read the rest of the story.

“Intellectual curiosity in someone who’s airing everyone’s dirty laundry?” she asks, raising an eyebrow.

“This person _did_ catch out a terrorist, Christine. They’re smart, very smart, and I’m sure I’m not the only one who wonders where they came from and when they’ll get caught.” Who wouldn’t at this point? Someone who can break into systems that are off limits to even the smartest people in the world, and someone who manages to catch terrorists? That’s interesting for one, and for two all sorts of policing systems are chasing their tails, utterly lost on who is behind this. They’ve consulted Tony but he seems to have found nothing. That really only adds to the myth behind this hacker anyways, though he’s sure the FBI doesn’t appreciate it.

“Whatever. I think whoever this is is playing with fire. You don’t start releasing information on whomever whenever without consequences,” she points out.

Stephen nods, “well, Justin Hammer certainly knows that considering he’s now also on trial for treason. Turns out Obadiah wasn’t the only one selling weapons to terrorists.” He wonders if its purposeful that the hacker has now tanked the two most powerful weapon’s making companies in the world or if that was a coincidence considering Tony decided to stop making weapons on his own. Regardless, he’s interested for better or for worse.


	2. Chapter 2

Tony is itching to get back to his research, he’s found some _big_ things after doing some digging, but sadly he has to keep up appearances. “Mr. Stark,” a smooth, attractive voice says from behind him, “you never called.”

He turns to find that irritating doctor he’d dealt with a couple months ago behind him. “Stephen Strange,” he says, unsure if he remembered the name right. He knows for sure the last name was ‘Strange’ anyways. But the doctor grins, clearly pleased that he’d been remembered in a way that tells Tony he’s cocky, arrogant. He does his best to find that irritating.

“And I’ve been told you’re not good with remembering names,” he says. “Perhaps that’s only with people that aren’t memorable enough.” His tone is as arrogant as his facial expression and Tony would like to tell him he’s not all that interesting either but that’s not true. He _had_ predicted the palladium poisoning, and he had been right about metal being a bad choice. Tony feels less pressure on his chest now that he’s altered his materials slightly. He still has only eighty percent lung capacity but that extra ten percent had been a lot of literal breathing room.

“What exactly brings you here?” he asks, changing the subject. He doesn’t want to give Stephen the impression he thinks he’s all that impressive even if it’s mostly not true.

Stephen raises an eyebrow, “what brings a _doctor_ to a dinner event on medicine?” he asks like Tony is particularly dense for asking something like that.

He rolls his eyes, “do you go to every event about medicine or only the ones that interest you?” he asks in the same haughty tone he keeps getting out of Stephen.

It seems to make its point because Stephen smiles, unruffled. “I’m a guest speaker. I wouldn’t have expected to find you here though- what’s your interest?” he asks.

Tony doesn’t think Stephen cares much about his interest here at all; he’s just making the usual small talk. “I was the one who donated all the money to your research, I guess,” he says. “Pretty sure I read ‘Christine Palmer’ on the paperwork though,” he adds just to be an ass.

Stephen doesn’t take offense at all though, his smile gets wider. “My partner, then. Of medicine,” he adds. “She’s impressive, but not as good as me.”

Tony raises an eyebrow, “which one of you is the one using trans-sectioned spinal cords to stimulate neurogenesis in the central nervous system?” he asks. He suspects Strange but his laugh confirms it.

“That would be me. Christine as some strange hang up in the ER. Complete waste of her time- she’s a brilliant doctor, she could be spending more time helping me with my research but if she insists on losing time in the ER that’s not my problem,” he says, shaking his head.

Odd response coming from someone so arrogant but Tony finds himself interested in the turn in conversation. “I take it you and Christine have worked together quite a bit then- is she here?” he asks mostly to keep the doctor on his toes. He’s the one who chose to diverge from talking himself up for a moment and Tony has always liked toying with arrogant minds when he senses no malevolence behind them.

Stephen shakes his head, “she’s never been fond of these things. Looks like you’re stuck with me,” he says.

Tony laughs, “you’ll find I’m not stuck with anyone I don’t want to be with.”

*

On any given day Stephen gets bored fast- his first, second, and third loves are all medicine and most people simply have no patience for it. He’s never cared about that because he hardly cares about the approval of others, but it does usually make his conversations blessedly short. He’s never been fond of people either and Tony finds this endlessly amusing, dark eyes glittering with laughter. “You’re a doctor who doesn’t like people?” he asks. “Your bedside manner must be awful.”

Stephen wrinkles his nose, “bedside manner is for nurses.” He has no time to waste on meaningless chitchat with people over whether or not they’ll be okay. His job is to fix their bodies, not play therapist- he isn’t that kind of doctor and has zero intention on pretending to be.

“I feel bad for nurses that work with you,” Tony says but its obvious that he finds the situation funny in a way that most usually don’t. Frankly he has no idea why, he’s a pleasure to be around but that’s their problem.

“So do they but I refuse to dole out meaningless words to some ninny in a bed who needs comfort. It’s a waste of my time,” he says, nose in the air.

Tony grins and leans forward, full focus on Stephen just the way he likes it. “I don’t believe that,” he says, amusement still alight in his features. “I think you care a lot about people but you don’t want to get attached for some reason.”

He wrinkles his nose to hide that Tony has hit too close to home. “I don’t care about my patients, I _fix_ them. That’s better in my opinion.”

“Well you have to care about them to want to fix them, right? I mean if you really didn’t care you wouldn’t be a very good doctor let alone a world renowned one,” he points out.

Stephen shrugs delicately, “I don’t really think about it much,” he lies. He can tell that Tony sees right through it and that’s… compelling and frightening at once. People don’t ever see past the walls he puts up and he’s always rather liked it that way. But the fact that Tony isn’t buying his argument is undeniably curious and it makes Stephen want to pull away and move closer in almost equal parts.

Tony reaches out, brushing his fingers along the inside of Stephen’s wrist in a way that reminds him of checking for someone’s pulse but erotic. It’s an odd mixture of feelings. “I’m sure you don’t, doctor,” he murmurs and Stephen quite likes the way Tony says ‘doctor’.

*

Tony has a lot of information at his disposal and he’s not sure how to release it. Scratch that- he knows exactly how to release it its just a matter of what he wants to release when that’s the problem. Government secrets really aren’t something that surprises Tony, everyone in the public knows the government has them, but even he’d been surprised to find out that Captain America is still alive. He’d been found last year in some area Howard probably searched dozens of times and when he’d been defrosted they’d been surprised to find he still had a heart beat.

For a long time he considers the information. It isn’t entirely that important aside from fringe conspiracy theorists that have stupid ideas about what happened to him, but it’s the decision from some military group to put him into action that makes the decision for him. He makes sure the information goes to a few sources he’s determined are decent plus his own side project blog. Blogging has never really been his thing but social media is influential so he uses it to his advantage. Besides, nothing that’s lacking for traceable evidence is ever posted on it anyways.

Since his stunt on himself and Obi he’s earned a lot of credit for being reliable, and after a few politician’s careers met their ends mostly for money laundering people flat out liked him. He supposes people dislike politicians enough to overlook their offense to his outing himself for what was essentially terrorism. He still has no idea why anyone came to his defense or why they still do but he’s determined that his fanboys are the worst.

He’s sitting back and waiting for Twitter to explode when Rhodey calls him. “Holy shit,” he starts, cutting right to the chase of why he’s calling Tony guesses. “Captain America is alive, man. That hacker found a shit ton if video evidence and my bosses are _losing_ it.”

Tony snorts, “so the symbol of the American Dream lives,” he says blandly.

Rhodey pauses for a beat, waiting for more before he speaks again. “Dude, Captain America is _alive_! How are you not losing it right now?” he asks.

Because he already knew but he can’t tell Rhodey that- he disapproves of Tony’s hacking activities even if he has no idea he’s telling Tony that to his face. “I already know everything there is to know about the guy, Howard made sure of that. What’s the real deal being alive going to do for me?” He doesn’t have to fake sounding bitter and annoyed, he’s always hated that Howard compared him to Steve fucking Rogers all the damn time. Rhodey buys it.

“Shit, right. Sorry. It is kind of a big thing though, for the rest of us,” Rhodey says.

Twitter explodes a few moments before Rhodey says that and within a matter of minutes #CaptainAmericaLives is trending. “I know that. But I don’t think there’s much exciting about some dude from the forties being alive, he’s probably racist,” he points out.

Rhodey makes an irritated noise, “oh come on man, don’t go ruining him like that for me. Some of us regard him as a hero, you know,” he says and Tony laughs.

“I thought you were more of a Martin Luther King Jr. kind of guy,” he says.

“I can like both at once even if I have a slight preference for MLK,” Rhodey says primly. Tony smiles and shakes his head.

*

Steve would have preferred not to have been outted but he’s not entirely sure why SHIELD is freaking out about it. So someone found some videos of him, its not like he’s been making an effort to hide. People didn’t even recognize him when he was out in the streets. Of course now that Google earth function could find him if he were an ant in a hill but he still has no idea why SHIELD is losing it.

“You do understand the threat of being hacked, right?” Natasha asks.

He rolls his eyes, “I’m old, not incapable of learning. I’m aware of the dangers but I’m also aware that there are countermeasures. Figure out what went wrong and make sure it won’t happen again,” he says. He might not understand all the ins and outs, not fully, but he knows enough to know that this is the kind of thing that can be properly dealt with.

Natasha sighs, “that isn’t good enough here. Whoever broke into our systems is smarter than the person who made them and the person who made them is one of the smartest people in the world.”

“Howard,” Steve says, familiar with his role in founding SHIELD. Natasha nods.

“So now we have to go talk to his son,” she mumbles, hands gripping the steering wheel tight.

“Something you’re not looking forward to, I guess?” He knows actually- Natasha isn’t the nervous type and yet she seems rather on edge.

She shakes her head, “Tony is… arrogant,” she says finally. Probably no different than Howard, he supposes, and he knows how to deal with him.

Of course when they make it to Tony’s house, if you could even call the large structure that, he gets a better idea of why Natasha hadn’t been looking forward to dealing with Tony. He looks at the oversized house and frowns at it, “how is this thing even _on_ this cliff? Doesn’t seem like a good idea structurally.” It’s right on the edge of the damn thing, who would be irresponsible enough to put a house there?

Tony looks behind him, “yeah I got told it was impossible but here it is so guess the architects were wrong,” he says in a sharp voice that confuses Steve. What the hell did he do to earn that?

“Still seems like a stupid idea if you get bad weather,” Steve says back in a prickly tone, irritated with Tony’s attitude.

“Yeah, well, you aren’t really an expert in house building are you?” Tony asks, head titled to the side as he gives Steve a hard look. _What_ does this guy have against him?

“And you are?” he asks, annoyance leaking into his tone.

“I know more than the experts, proof is in the supposedly impossible pudding,” he says, gesturing behind him. “But I’m not technically an architect.”

“You don’t look like anything particularly impressive to me,” Steve tells him, done with his bad attitude. Beside him Natasha winces and takes a step to the left like she expects this to be a fight. It’d be a quick one if it was, Steve doubts Tony is enhanced and he’s got that thing in his chest. Seems like an obvious weakness to him.

Tony gives him a cruel smile, “you don’t look like anything impressive to me either. So much for an all American hero,” he says, turning his back and walking back into his house. Natasha sighs and follows, obviously not happy with this turn of events.

“Stark, get back here, we have problems!”


	3. Chapter 3

Captain America in the flesh and Tony doesn’t find him all that interesting. Howard went on and on about him but the guy is a total asshole. “You want me to track your hacker?” he asks for clarification because this is fucking _rich_.

Natasha nods. “Howard’s systems were impossible to crack,” she says and Tony shakes his head.

“Every safe has a weakness and Howard’s encryptions are no exception,” he says.

“I suppose yours are?” Steve asks, presumptuously.

Tony tilts his head to the side and squints at him. “ _Every_ safe has its weaknesses,” he repeats. “Mine are no exception; it’s just that no one currently alive can crack them. That doesn’t make them foolproof, it makes me smarter than the average hacker.” Smarter than every hacker, but that’s not the point. He won’t be the best there ever is, or he hopes he won’t be. That’d be a disappointment to say the least.

“Look, will you help or not?” Natasha asks, obviously irritated.

“Yeah, I’m in,” he says easily enough, shocking the two of them. “Give me everything you’ve got in regards to SHIELD’s security,” he adds. He’s sure full, unrestricted access will lead him to all sorts of fun places in his investigation and these idiots are fucking stupid enough to give that to him for free.

He hadn’t anticipated that but hey, he’ll take it.

*

Stephen knows he’s selfish, he doesn’t care that he is either, but he’s never met someone who is as indulgent in his selfishness as Tony. He doesn’t seem to mind that Stephen mostly only invites him to things _he_ wants to do, doesn’t care that Stephen spends all their time together talking about his work, and he makes an effort to ask questions about it. It’s a nice ego boost, but it does make him curious about Tony. What an ironic twist of events- Christine would be shocked. Who knew he actually didn’t want to talk about himself all the time? That’s a surprise to him too.

“Your company is doing well all things considered,” he says and Tony nods.

“We’re finally starting to see profits after shutting weapons down,” he says.

A bold choice, one Stephen approves of even if he’s in the minority. Its distasteful, he thinks, to profit off weapons of mass destruction and it occurs to him that this is probably a good topic of conversation outside of medicine. Hmm. “I suppose you can afford to start hiring workers back,” he says.

Tony frowns, “hire them back?”

Stephen’s eyebrows draw together, “well, you would have had to fire a bunch of them or at least lay them off given the massive hit your company took. There’s no way around that.” A sad, if unfortunate fact.

“I didn’t fire anyone _or_ lay them off. I just didn’t make a salary- made no difference to me considering I’m the one who can actually afford unemployment,” he says. Stephen’s eyebrows shoot up at that because _what_?

“Seriously?” he asks, unsure he heard those words right.

“Yeah, Stephen. I couldn’t punish people who worked for me because I chose to shut down a section of my business. I mean a lot of people had nothing to do for a few weeks while I worked out a business plan, but they still got paid for it.” This is news to Stephen, no one ever wrote news articles on _this_. There had been several about everything from Tony being a stupid and irresponsible business owner to him being a traitor to his country for not continuing to supply the military with weapons, but none on his decision to take a pay cut to continue supporting his workers.

The decision strikes Stephen strangely, warming his heart in a way that almost never happens. Not since… well, since his sister died. He knows he closed himself off after that; it’d been a painful moment in his life. He certainly hadn’t expected Tony of all people to thaw his heart a little with something that by no means had any effect on him.

“I’m sure people were grateful for that,” he says softly and Tony smiles.

“I got a lot of letters of thanks but I shouldn’t have. I didn’t do anything revolutionary, I did what was right.”

No, Stephen thinks, he’s done something almost no one in his position would ever do. He reaches out and links his fingers in Tony’s with a pleasant, light feeling floating in his chest.

*

Stephen doesn’t normally ask questions but Tony is happy to fill him in, giving him blunt and honest answers even to the hard questions. “You were never confortable with your reputation?” he asks and Tony shrugs.

“Not really. I mean some of it is true, I am kind of a jackass, but some of it is just… uncomfortable. I never wanted to be known as a womanizer, or the guy who sells weapons. I wanted to be an inventor, not the Merchant of Death.” Of course there’d come a time when he lost sight of that, which he tells Stephen. He used to hate Howard for the way he acted and then turned out to be just like him, maybe even worse. Stephen’s face softens though and he reaches out, carefully laying his hand over Tony’s in a comforting way. He’s been affectionate today, so much more than his usual cool aloofness and Tony likes it. He’s always been a touchy guy even if he mostly keeps that to himself but Stephen’s newfound love of touch has been pleasant.

“You’re nothing like your father,” he says and Tony laughs.

“No offense, but you don’t have a frame of reference for that.” Its not really a strike against him, the man died almost twenty years ago. It hadn’t been a loss, but his mom…

“Not a personal one,” Stephen agrees, “but I remember the interviews like most others. Men like that don’t change,” he says.

Tony isn’t so sure he agrees but he already knows he’s much more forgiving than Stephen is. For a man that claims to be a pacifist- something Tony has recently learned after a discussion on selling weapons and the morality of it- Stephen is actually quite vicious. He draws the line at murder, and he doesn’t like weapons, but pretty much everything else appears to be free game for him and Tony wonders if Stephen realizes psychological torment is so much worse than death. He’d know, he can’t even count the number of times he wished he were dead in those caves between the torture and the intentional discomfort he’d been kept in to purposefully throw him off. Didn’t work out for the terrorists though.

“Men like me don’t change either,” he says and Stephen smiles a little.

“I know. Good men aren’t comfortable with their bad reputations, even if they take some time to actually change them,” he says and the comment gives him an unexpected warm feeling through his chest. It’s so unusual, probably because he’s more used to pain there than a feeling of acceptance and peace, but he decides he likes it.

“I don’t know what I did in a past life to earn finding you, but I’ll take it,” he jokes, half smiling.

*

People hadn’t reacted the way he’d anticipated to Steve being alive- they’d mostly taken it as a good thing, which pissed him off but whatever. So Tony starts looking into something new with his fresh new access to SHIELD’s systems. It’s not short on secrets that’s certain, but Tony finds most of them useless or things that appear out of context for the moment. He files those particular things away because he knows they’ll lead somewhere eventually but ‘eventually’ isn’t ready to release now and people are getting a little antsy. They’re all wondering what comes next, new anchors are on edge, and one person compared him to some graphic novel character named V from something called V for Vendetta. He hasn’t looked it up to know if the comparison holds up and frankly he doesn’t care because he isn’t a comic character.

Point is that for now he’s sitting on information but none of it currently has a use. He’s got a few threads to pull, but he needs to wait until he can actually unravel something from it. He’s considering the odd coded messages sent through SHIELD’s computer systems when his phone rings. He expects Pepper but finds Rhodey’s number instead and frowns. “Isn’t it ass o’clock in the morning where you are?” he asks, sure that the time zone difference puts Rhodey’s time at something ridiculously inconvenient like normal.

“No, its ass o’clock in the morning for _you_. Guess you’re not sleeping again,” Rhodey says, disproval in his tone but Tony has never slept well. He doesn’t think it’s in his nature to.

“Fine, sure. I’m sure you’re calling for a reason though- usually you just show up on my doorstep if you’re coming home,” he says. He rarely calls when he’s away. Generally he uses email to keep contact, occasionally texts, but calls are unusual.

“What? Can’t I just call my best friend?” he asks and Tony snorts.

“Nope. Spit it out, Rhodes.” There’s a reason, Tony knows it.

Rhodey lets out a put upon sigh even though they both damn well know Tony is right. “Okay, fine. Why the hell did I find out from _TMZ_ that you’re dating some random doctor? He looks like an asshole,” he says.

Tony wonders how he could get that from a picture and a quick Google shows that the particular picture TMZ used is actually a nice one. Tony has his head thrown back in a laugh while Stephen looks down at him fondly. There’s another from when they’d had dinner weeks ago where Stephen looks a lot stuffier but it’d been earlier on in their relationship. He still doesn’t look like an asshole. “I wasn’t sure the relationship was viable yet,” he says and Rhodey snorts.

“Never stopped you before. What’s different now?” he asks.

Okay good point but still. “I uh… guess this is actually serious,” he says eventually. “Didn’t want to jinx it.”

Rhodey remains quiet for a long moment. “Tony you’re a great guy, this Strange or whatever the hell fake name he has is lucky to have you,” he says and Tony laughs at the reference to Stephen’s name. Yeah, Dr. Strange absolutely sounds fake even if it’s his actual title. Tony thinks he’s obligated to be a mad scientist with a name like that but Stephen had taken offense to the idea.

“That’s his legal name, I checked,” Tony tells Rhodey.

He lets out a soft sigh. “Where the hell do you even find these guys, Tones? Whatever, I don’t care. Tell me about this doctor guy, what’s he like? I’m not going to be home for another month and a half to judge myself so you’re going to need to provide details,” he says and Tony laughs.

“Details- the guy has done like a million talks Rhodey, watch a few of them,” he says.

“Oh I’ve watched all of them and I think he is lacking for empathy especially, but he also has a stupid amount of ego. He’s an arrogant jackass so forgive me for wondering what the hell you see in him. He’s not even that good looking,” Rhodey says and Tony lets out a sharp laugh at _that_.

He damn well knows Rhodey has eye balls that function. “Stephen might have a big ego but A- he’s earned it and B- he is _so_ not lacking in attractive points. Have you _seen_ his cheekbones? And the slight greying in his hair at the sides? Not something I would have thought I’d find sexy but he _really_ pulls that off. Also his general figure? I wish I looked like that,” Tony says. He’s tall, lithe, graceful- everything Tony would think he’d see in a dancer rather than a surgeon not that he’s complaining. Stephen has decided to spend time with him in particular and he’s going to soak that up until Stephen gets sick of him.

“Uh, he’s not that cute in scrubs and bowties do not look good on him. Someone should tell him that. Actually you know what I will when I’m home in a few weeks, right after I tell him that he’s not good enough for you,” Rhodey says and Tony sighs.

“Rhodes, leave the man be. I’m fine, _he’s_ fine. Both in the emotional way and in the sexy way. Seriously, pictures don’t do him justice and neither do scrubs, who the fuck looks good in scrubs?” he adds because that is a very flawed argument of Rhodey’s even if he agrees on the bowties. Whenever he spends any significant time in Stephen’s space he’ll make it a point to steal all his bowties and burn them.

“Ororo looked good in scrubs,” Rhodey says and Tony rolls his eyes at Rhodey’s crush from college. Smart woman, very outspoken. She’s a human’s rights activist now, Tony thinks, and she’s a great speaker. And she hadn’t looked good in scrubs, that’s just Rhodey’s rose tinted glasses talking.

“I love you, but you’re delusional. Stephen is actually pretty great,” Tony says and he tells Rhodey about his last date with Stephen. It sort of makes him miss Stephen now even though that’d only been a few days ago, but that just makes his next date something to look forward to more. Rhodey listens along, adding his opinion in here and there, and despite Tony’s glowing review he still decides he doesn’t like Stephen. Tony thinks that he just needs to meet Stephen, get to know him a little and he’ll change his mind. He might be a little prickly at first, but he’s got a soft center and Tony wants to explore more of that, especially with his new habit of texting often. Or what Tony counts as often for a busy doctor.

He likes Stephen’s newfound habit of texting because it means he gets hilarious reviews of patients he doesn’t like and Stephen has one hell of a flair for the dramatic and a very colorful vocabulary. His description of a patient Christine had in the ER that had gotten a light bulb stuck up his ass had Tony laughing so hard he was certain he was going to lose consciousness from a lack of oxygen to the brain. Stephen’s texts don’t win him any brownie points with Rhodey even after Tony reads him some.

**Author's Note:**

> [My writing Tumblr](https://tenspencerriedplease.tumblr.com/)


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